How did it even get in here?
That was the one thing that Twilight was completely unable to figure out as she inched towards the manticore. The capitol city of Cadance's country was surrounded by a massive, seamless wall of crystal, and patrolled on top by pegasi trained in combat flight. She had read quite a bit about it, as well as studying it on her way in. There was no conceivable way it could have gotten in without somepony noticing.
But she could probably wait to work out how it had done it. Right now, it was much more important that she protect the innocent citizens milling around aimlessly, apparently oblivious to the monster.
Twilight prepared to charge, her horn buzzing with a stunning spell just waiting to be released.
"Twiley, wait." Shining Armor cantered past her. She rolled her eyes. Yes, she was his little sister, but that didn't mean he had to protect her. She had single-hoofedly rocked an Ursa Minor to sleep, for Celestia's sake.
But she could let him be the hero. If he needed her, she was ready.
But Shining ran right up to the manticore without igniting his horn. Twilight watched, dumbfounded, as he dipped his head slightly in...greeting?
"Good morning," he said.
The manticore sank into a bow with leonine grace.
"And to you, Prince," it growled.
Twilight struggled to close her mouth as it padded past her, on its way to the mobile donut shop they had just passed. Shining trotted back and slung a foreleg over her withers.
"Things are a little different here," he murmured.
"I'd say so," Twilight replied incredulously. Her eyes were still fixed on the manticore, who held up two claws to the griffon selling donuts. The vendor squawked in assent and shoved two pastries into a paper bag, handing it over for a pawful of bits.
"Come on, we'd better get you to the palace." Shining took his leg away and walked a few feet in the direction of the crystal behemoth in the distance. He stopped, to make sure she was following him, and Twilight finally forced her hooves to move.
"I didn't know they were sentient," she murmured.
"Most aren't. There are twenty-six in the entire city, and all of them were positively affected by magic as cubs. One teaches at the local academy, actually."
"Are there any other monsters I shouldn't attack?"
"A lot, actually. We have three adult dragons, and five teenagers, all hatched in the wild. There's a very high population of kirin--you know, like Princess Luna's guards--and a few reindeer hybrids. And I'm pretty sure there's a seapony in the Topaz fountain."
Twilight shook her head, amazed. "How--" Suddenly, something clicked behind her lavender eyes. "Cadance."
Shining grinned, apparently proud that she had figured it out so fast. "So you didn't read anything about the amazing calming effects of our Princess?"
"It wasn't mentioned in any of the twelve books I was able to find on the Crystal Empire."
"It's gotten a lot stronger ever since the wedding," he said after a quick chuckle, gently nudging her into motion with his magic. "But so far, it hasn't been affected by...well, Cadance has been pretty stressed lately. As you could probably tell from whatever letter she sent you."
His disapproval of the fact that she hadn't talked to him about it was obvious. Twilight changed the subject.
"So are you going to tell me what happened?" she asked, trotting beside him. It was hard to keep her eyes on her brother--everything was just so different from Equestria. Buildings that became steadily more opaque the further one went into them, something that looked like a Diamond Dog chatting comfortably with a unicorn, and--off in the distance, a dragon perched on top of an elegant emerald building. Drinking tea.
"Now's not really the place," Shining responded, glancing around at the diversity that he must have become accustomed to. "Nopony outside the palace knows, and I'd like to keep it that way."
Twilight nodded her understanding, even though she already had a pretty good idea of what the emergency was. She wasn't looking forward to being asked to deal with it. Celestia called her in to ask her opinion on advanced magical theory, Luna sent for her in order to find out how 'normal' ponies did certain things in this day and age. If Cadance was going to start summoning her just to ask how to deal with everypony she thought might be a Changeling, they were going to have a problem. Even as understandable as it might be.
But maybe it had nothing to do with Changelings. Maybe Twilight was wrong. After all, it wasn't like it was uncommon for her to be summoned by a princess. Celestia--and Luna, to a lesser extent--did it all the time. It was entirely possible that Cadance was just having a dispute with the griffon kingdom, with whom she shared a border, or something. And was just following in the hoofsteps of her aunts by asking their most trusted adviser for her opinion.
She liked that explanation a lot better.
Maybe while I'm here, she thought to herself, I can write a more accurate book about this city. I'm sure the ponies of Equestria would love to--
Twilight was startled out of her thoughts by somepony shrieking, "OMC, that's her!"
Three young mares and one stallion galloped over, effectively surrounding her with wide grins and eager eyes. Her ears instinctively drooped as she looked around. She had no idea what was going on.
"Um...can I help you?" she asked, nervously shuffling her hooves. A quick glance at Shining revealed that he was smiling. There would be no help from him.
"You're Twilight Sparkle, right?" asked one of the mares, a unicorn with her amber mane pulled back into a persontail.
"Yes, but how do you--"
"We're huge fans," interrupted one of the two pegasus mares.
"Can I have your autograph?" added the other, who had a blue coat to complement her friend's indigo one.
"Do you have a coltfriend?" interjected the stallion. The intensity of his cyan eyes promised that he would not be outdone by the mares.
"No!" Twilight backed up. To her dismay, the three madmares--and one madstallion--followed her. "How in the name of Celestia do you know who I am?"
They stared at her in disbelief.
"Are you kidding?" the unicorn asked.
"You don't know how famous you are?" the indigo pegasus asked.
"You're Twilight Sparkle," the blue one emphasized. "You defeated Nightmare Moon, and Discord, and you're friends with the Princesses! Everypony knows who you are."
She stared at them in complete and utter bewilderment. This never happened in Ponyville. Or Canterlot. But then again, most of the ponies there had known her at least by sight even before they had known she was an Element of Harmony. She wasn't as much as a novelty to them.
"Are you interested in having a coltfriend?" the blue-eyed stallion asked, oblivious to the fact that he had just derailed her train of thought.
"No." Twilight fished a pencil out of her saddlebag. When in Pegasopolis, do as the pegasi do. "What do you want me to sign?"
She started regretting her decision to play along when she saw how many random scraps of paper they shoved at her, but it was a little too late to back out now. Rapidly scribbling signature after signature, she glanced at Shining again. He shrugged.
Once all four ponies had been more or less appeased, Twilight Sparkle speed-trotted towards the palace, head lowered so that her bangs covered her eyes.
"I probably should have warned you that you're a bit of a celebrity here," Shining began as he fell into step beside her.
"Just take me to Cadance," Twilight muttered.
She really hoped it was the griffons. She wasn't in the mood to deal with Changelings.
A/N: So much headcanon.
Just for future reference, is it believable? Or did I overdo it?
Thanks for commenting, if you do.